Macbeth — HDVDARTS

Verdi Macbeth opera to a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and Andrea Maffei. Directed 2009 by Dmitri Tcherniakov at the Paris Opéra Bastille. Stars Dimitris Tiliakos (Macbeth), Ferruccio Furlanetto (Banquo [Banco]), Violeta Urmana (Lady Macbeth), Letitia Singleton (Lady attending Lady Macbeth), Stefano Secco (Macduff), Alfredo Nigro (Malcolm), and Yuri Kissin (Doctor/Servant). Teodor Currentzis conducts the Paris Opera Orchestra and the Paris Opera Children Chorus (Chorus Master Alessandro Di Stéfano). Set and costume design by Dmitri Tcherniakov; lighting by Gleb Filshtinksy; costume design collaboration by Elena Zaytseva; video by Leonid Zalessky of Ninja Films. Directed for TV by Andy Sommer; produced by Flançois Duplat. Sung in Italian. Released in 2011, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

Here are two clips about this radical updating:

Buy on Amazon

What's New

Here's news about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, fine-art documentaries, and paintings. In the journal below are independent (and hard-to-find critical) reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.

Feb 25. We have just completed one of our most ambitious reviews: Einstein on the Beach opera, the surreal 4 and 1/2 hour cult legend. Kudos, encomiums, and accolades to Opus Arte for giving us this authoritative and weirdly fascinating recording, which we grade A+. Absorbing and learning Einstein is uniquely challenging. We try to help out by providing aids not included in the keepcase materials: an accurate libretto and a list of segments in the opera with correct Opus Arte time stamps. Good luck!

We have some other good grades with an A for the recent Met The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles) and a B- for an earlier The Pearl Fishers from Naples. Also, we recently gave an A- for the new Don Quixote from the Vienna State Ballet.